Liquor, Liquor, Everywhere...

Normally Mrs. Bottle and I live a life of relaxed luxury where we sit around, drink, and ponder who might win Top Chef.  Due to some unfortunate circumstances, we have had to remain stone cold sober for the last couple evenings.  That makes it difficult to update a blog about drinking.  That isn’t going to stop me from making a post, though.  We inventoried our pre-blog liquor cabinet and we are happy to share it (the inventory, not the liquor) with you.

Behold a loosely organized list with the proof and an occasional note:

Whiskey

Wild Turkey Bourbon (80)

Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch (80) - Purchased for a visit from my dad but found out he stopped drinking

Maker's Mark Bourbon (80) - For my father-in-law's visits

Rum

Bacardi Select Dark Rum (80)

Bacardi Superior Light Rum (80)

Captain Morgan Spiced Rum (70)

Captain Morgan Silver Spiced Rum (70)

Captain Morgan Parrot Bay Pineapple Rum  (42)

Gin

Tangueray Rangpur Gin (82.6) - This is my go-to drink for staying in

Bombay Sapphire Gin (94) - My favorite with tonic when dining out

Tanqueray 10 Gin (94.6) - Another high-end gin with a distinctive flavor

Tanqueray Gin (94.6) - Have to have some cheap stuff

Gordon's Gin (80) - I guess it can get cheaper

Seagram's Gin (80)

Vodka

Absolut Flavor of the Tropics Vodka (80) - This is one of Absolut's special vodkas you can only get in duty-free shops

Absolut Ruby Red Vodka (80)

Absolut Mandarin Vodka (80)

Happy Vodka (80) - Mrs. Bottle purchased this soley based on the bottle.  It tastes it.

Chopin Vodka (80)

Soli Oranj Vodka (80)

Stoli Vanil Vodka (70) - Yummy with Coke

Finlandia Cranberry Fusion Vodka (80)

Grey Goose Vodka (80)

Grey Goose L'Orange Vodka (80) – Mrs. Bottle’s favorite

Tequila

Don Julio Tequila (Blanco) (80)

Cabo Wabo Reposado Tequila (80)

Sauza Tres Generaciones Tequila (80)

Sauza Tres Generaciones Plata Tequila (80)

Herradura Silver Tequila (80)

Tequila De Los Altos - Silver (80)

Liqueur / Schnapps / Miscellaneous

Ciclón (Rum infused with Tequila and Lime) (70) - I'm pretty sure I've had this for about 10 years.  It is good but I just don't drink it very often.

Pama Pomegranate Liqueur (34)

Amaretto Liqueur (42)

Pomegranate Schnapps (30)

Melon Liqueur (46)

Chateau Monet Framboise Liqueur (33) - A raspberry liqueur essential for Red Headed Sluts

99 Bananas (99) - Winner for "highest proof" of anything in our liquor cabinet

Peachtree Schnapps (30)

Blackberry Brandy (70)

Buttershots Butterscotch Liqueur (30) - This is the start of the "tastes good in coffee or hot chocolate" section

Godiva Original Liqueur (30)

Peppermint Schnapps (60)

Baily's Irish Cream (34)

Kahlua Liqueur (53) - This is the end of the "tastes good in coffee or hot chocolate" section

Goldschlager Cinnamon Schnapps (87) - With real gold!

Pisco Reservado (80)

Triple Sec (42)

Grand Marnier Orange Liqueur (80)

Patron Citronage Orange Liqueur (80)

Zwack Liqueur (80) - Hungary's answer to Jägermeister

Since we started the blog we had to buy Southern Comfort (70).  We also bought some Angustora Aromatic Bitters.  It will be interesting to see how we expand both our waistlines and our liquor cabinet.

Day 2: Banzai!

Mrs. Bottle made a delicious stir-fry so we decided to stick with an Asian theme and make Kamikazes.   This is our first official Mr. Boston drink and we tried something pretty simple.  Just mix the  three ingredients, pour it in the glass, and pound it.  The most complicated aspect is that they recommend you serve it in a chilled shot glass.  You can chill a glass by leaving it in the freezer or by filling it with ice water.  Since we wanted to drink RIGHT NOW, we went with the ice water method.  

Blurry and Sour

Visually, it wasn’t that exciting. It looks a little like lemonade.  The Cheers shot glass purchased at the Bull & Finch pub was probably the presentation highlight.  Did you know that they changed the name of Bull & Finch to “Cheers Beacon Hill”?  I guess everybody didn’t know their name.

Taste-wise it was not the best drink we ever tried.  In fact, it was the worst of all the drinks chronicled in this blog so far. When Mrs. Bottle tried it she puckered up and couldn’t open her mouth for 30 seconds.  I had pretty much the same reaction. That thing was Sour with a capital S.   That was all you could taste.  Sour sour sour.  I might as well have sucked a lime. The kids today would probably like it, though, since they love that crap.   I will say that it didn’t stop me from finishing it off.   I am dedicated like that.

We did cheat a little on this one, however.  The recipe calls for lime juice and instead of using fresh squeezed we used that stuff that comes in a plastic lime.  I love that plastic lime.  It is so green and festive.  The drink probably wouldn't have tasted any less sour with the real stuff, but it might have tasted better.  Probably not.

The Culprit?

Ratings on a 10-point scale:

Taste: 4

Ease of Preparation: 7

Presentation: 5

Drinks until blackout: 7 – This one has 20% alcohol content,  but it is a pretty small drink.  Your mouth would pucker shut before you could blackout.

A Southern Holiday Cheer

We thought that the best way to kick off this blog about the Mr. Boston bar guide was to drink something that isn’t in it: Southern Comfort Vanilla Spice Eggnog.  We didn’t plan it this way but since it is Christmas time we felt it was appropriate. Of course it is now after Christmas, but feel free to bookmark this page and check it every day until next Christmas and eventually it will be relevant.

The Mr. Boston guide has an entire chapter on eggnog with over a dozen different recipes.  Most of them include store bought (!) eggnog.  None of them include Southern Comfort, though.  What the heck is Southern Comfort, anyway?  I’m familiar with the classic Powers Booth tour de force where a bunch of soldiers fight some Cajuns, but I always thought the alcohol was bourbon.  In fact, it is a "fruit, spice and whiskey flavored liqueur" and comes in at 70 proof.  

We went to the liquor store to get a bottle and learned something else: The 750ml size came in a plastic version and a glass version.   Being slightly snobby, we bought the glass version.  We figure that glass=class.  The plastic one would be good for carrying around in a paper bag I suppose. It would certainly remain intact in a street fight.

Before we made the drink we sampled a little of it straight and got a strong whiskey note, but a not altogether horrible flavor.

The drink itself was pretty easy to make.  You just mix 4 parts nog to one part SoCo and garnish with a cinnamon stick. We don’t know about you, but we don’t have cinnamon sticks sitting around so we compromised and sprinkled some ground cinnamon on top:

Looks tasty, no?  It was, in fact, pretty tasty.  There was a strong vanilla flavor but not overbearing.  You could taste the alcohol, but in a nice way.  The only real complaint was that the drink was extremely rich.  It was almost like drinking a milkshake.  We love milkshakes, but we don’t want more than one. 

Ratings on a 10 point scale

Taste: 7

Ease of Preparation: 9

Presentation: 7

Drinks until blackout: 8 – With a 7% total alcohol content it would take quite a few of these.  We imagine it would be like trying to drink a gallon of milk.

An Intro to Mrs. Bottle

I’m not really big on writing my thoughts and opinions out for everyone else to read. I barely do status updates on Facebook and I certainly don’t Tweet. But when Mr. Bottle suggested a blog about drinks, I figured I could overcome my trepidation and jot out my thoughts on one of my favorite pastimes. So to start out, I have several drinks that are part of my regular arsenal. Wine and beer are mainstays of course. But for liquor,
my main go-to beverage is the vodka tonic, specifically Grey Goose L’Orange w/diet tonic water (I’ve got to save some calories for all the partaking I do). My second favorite would have to be the classic margarita, on the rocks, no salt. I’m not a fan of that lime juice only stuff- way too tart for me so I’m a proponent of a tasty sour mix. I’d also have to say that I prefer a nice silver tequila in my ‘rita but when it really comes down to it, I’ll drink whatever is put in front of me. Except for those frozen ones- the ratio of water to alcohol is way too high. Anyway, I’m excited to try new drinks and maybe to learn to enjoy drinking other types of liquor that have previously made my face scrunch up like the Grinch’s before he grows that heart.

Mrs. Bottle

Just What We Needed

It’s hard to know how many blogs there are in existence today.  Most sources I could find claim there are over 100 million.  The last thing the world needs is another blog.  Since I’ve lived most of my life as an unproductive member of society I figure that starting a blog is a great way to continue that streak. 

I’ve started a couple of blogs in the past that were abandoned pretty quickly. This one probably will be, too.  The one thing that might keep it going is that this blog will be focused on my favorite leisure activity: drinking.

I rarely drink to excess, but I do drink with a high frequency.  My go-to drink is a gin and tonic.  It is simple and you can get it anywhere that sells alcohol.  It tastes pretty good and has a reasonable amount of manliness.  A Bombay Sapphire and Tonic really hits the spot under almost any circumstances.  A Tanquery Rangpur and Tonic is also tasty and it has less alcohol so I might enjoy an extra one during the evening.

I occasionally will drink something other than a G&T.  Margaritas, Captain & Coke Zero (have to watch my figure), and a John Daly also make the rotation.  I could be happy with those, but as I get older I would like to become a little more worldly.  One way to do this is to explore what other wonders are available in those beautiful bottles in the local liquor store.

One evening Mrs. Bottle and I were watching Julie & Julia and we thought we could blatantly steal the idea, but we would do it with a twist (get it?  Hilarious!).  We bought the Mr. Boston Platinum bar guide and we plan to have all 1,500 drinks inside.  We will make, drink, photograph, and rate them all.

We won’t necessarily go in order and we might have some special features, but that should give us 4+ years of drinks and a great head start on liver disease.

Cheers!